How does Google Do It?

Google's Advanced Search page has a number of detective tools. Scroll down the page a bit and locate the area called Page-Specific Search. When you use this form, just enter the web address (also called the URL) http://www.islma.org.

The Game's Afoot! Time to Detect!

Once you execute your Google Advanced links to Search you'll see a results page. The page lists other pages with links to the page you are investigating. Scan the snippets. Think about the nature of the websites that have chosen to link to the page under investigation. Now's the time for critical judgment. Are the websites that link to the page you are evaluating reputable, authoritative, and professional?

When your results display, look at the address bar. You'll see that Google has inserted the Link: operator and your query in the address bar.  Note the number of results you have.

Let's push things a bit farther. Experiment by adding a space after the colon and repeating the search.  This new search reveals even more links to the page we are investigating. What a difference a space makes! When evaluating websites by using a links to search in Google, you can greatly expand your results by simply adding a space between the link: operator and the URL. It pays to be a persistent detective!

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Authored by Lora K. Kaisler, Dennis O'Connor & Dan Balzer